A Love Story For The Ages
by missrebecca
Summary: NOMINATED FOR A SHIMMER AWARD! Edward was changed in 1918 unaware that his betrothed lay dying in an alley outside the hospital. Every eighteen years she comes back to him, only to die a horrible death. Can they find a way to stop it, before it's too lat
1. Prologue

**AN: All publicly recognised characters are the sole owner of their creator, Stephenie Meyer, who is in no way affiliated with this piece of literary fiction. No copyright infringment is intended.**

**So I've been working on this story for a while now, and it's finally ready to be seen by the world. It's the only story I've actually had beta'd, and it's my favourite by far.**

**This is the beginning to a 4 chapter (5 chapters including prologue) story. **

**I sincerely hope you enjoy it.**

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A Love Story For The Ages

a Twilight fanfiction by missrebecca

Prologue

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On a midsummer night, the streets were silent as Chicago's inhabitants lay dead, dying or praying. The city was in shock; no one expected the pandemic to reach so far. Not their large, modern city. They'd heard the reports from neighbouring states; it was just as bad everywhere else. So no one was around to notice the lone girl in her night dress stumbling along the deserted streets, flitting in and out of street lights, and tumbling down back alleys.

The wind on her face was warm as she walked quickly to the hospital to see her love. He'd taken ill only the week before, but she knew the doctors didn't hold much hope. His mother had died the day before, and she'd held him as she'd cried, her love too fervent to understand what was happening.

The summer breeze whipped her long hair into her eyes where it had come loose from her braid. It was late, getting on for ten o clock at night, and really she should be at home. Her father would kill her if he knew she was out this late. But she had to see him, she wasn't even sure why, except there was a pressure in her chest and a pain she didn't know the cause of, pushing her to see him.

She ran down another filthy alley when the pain hit again. Like burning from the inside out, but she ran through it, though it made her delirious and blind. She needed to see him, to hold him, for what she thought might be the last time, for surely this fire would kill her.

She couldn't describe this need, this urge to see her love. Though she knew he was burning as she was, though she knew not how she could. It was like needles, red hot needles poking at her skin from the inside, but no amount of ice would cool it. It had been the same for seven hours now. At first it had itched, an itching so bad she couldn't stand it. At first she'd used her nails to scratch the pain away, then she'd used forks and pens, till her arms were covered in blood but the itching had turned to a fire and the fire wouldn't go away. She didn't scream as she bled, as she burned. She was quiet through dinner as the panic ran through her gut, telling her to find him, to hold him.

Eventually her legs would work no more. The brick was cold and soothing to her hot skin as she collapsed against the wall, silent sobs escaping her throat. She needed to see him, to feel him one last time, without the presence of chaperones or doctors. They were to be married in a month, but she wasn't so sure it would happen. How could she survive this pain?

She didn't feel the ground as she fell to it. The fire had spread through all her limbs now, making her heart race and her muscles ache. She'd never felt her heart beat so fast.

And as she collapsed completely, her face meeting the ground she thought of her love; of Edward, as the fire consumed and stopped her heart.

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_feel free to let me know what you think. Chapters will be posted every Thursday and Tuesday._


	2. The Beginning

**As ever all publicly recognized characters are the property of their owner and creator Stephenie Meyer, who is in no way affiliated with this piece of literary fiction. No copyright infringement is intended.**

**Second chapter, posting has changed to every Monday and Thursday so the last chapter will be up on 28/10/10, meaning it'll be done before NaNo :)**

**I've had some lovely feedback about the prologue, so thank you very much to my reviewers, and I hope you enjoy this chapter.**

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A Love Story For The Ages

A Twilight Fanfiction by missrebecca

Chapter 1

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Edward had forgotten her. How her skin was milky white and her hair was so dark against her pale skin. Her lips a ruby red. He'd forgotten what they felt like, to be pressed under his own in a chaste kiss suitable for a betrothed pair. He'd forgotten how one night he'd felt her. The curves under her dress and the sighs over his face. He'd felt the soft skin of her collarbone under his lips that night. But he'd forgotten, until he saw her again.

It was eighteen years after he died. Eighteen years after a vampire named Carlisle had found him and 'saved' him, damning him to eternity on the earth but saving him from death. He'd never really known whether to be grateful.

But then he'd seen her. Her hair was shorter than he remembered but her eyes he would never forget. Such a deep shade of brown, he'd seen nothing like it till then. Her face was the exact same heart shape, her lips still an enticing red. She was smiling, with a man he assumed was her father. And he remembered.

Dinners with their families. Chaperoned evenings to the theatre. Nights in playing chess. Drinking tea on the porch swing. Sneaking in and out of windows. Being so deliriously in love they knew not what to do with themselves.

She would be over thirty years old now. Most likely married, with children, though seeing her then she didn't look much older than she had the last time he'd seen her; through feverish eyes in the hospital he'd died in. How could he have forgotten her?

He'd been walking with his 'family', when it happened. He'd suddenly stopped and a flash of images took over his mind. It lasted only a few seconds and none of the surrounding humans noticed, but his family did, questioning him in their minds as to what was happening. But he'd ignored them, transfixed as he was on the beauty and impossibility that was her.

Before long they'd had to move, his sister found a dying huntsman whom she couldn't bare to leave; and so Carlisle had changed him. He'd never seen the girl again.

He kept a look out for her though, every month running back to that town to check the papers for news of her. On his second trip he found it - a month before her eighteenth birthday, his Bella had died.

~O~

He'd convinced himself he had been hallucinating, transferring a latent human memory onto the image of this girl, who just so happened to look like her and share her name. A complete coincidence. But the second time he saw her, he thought for sure he was going mad.

She'd turned up in England, as they were visiting Carlisle's human home. Her hair was long and curled just so beneath her hat, nearly eighteen years after he'd last seen her. She wore a blue dress, with a wide neck to show her glorious collar bones, the same ones he wished he could kiss like before. And she'd smiled, introducing herself.

"Good evening. I'm Bella and you are?" She was so much more confident than the other girls her age, not afraid to approach the strange people in the corner.

He'd tried to hear her thoughts then, to see if maybe she recognised him on some level, but found he could hear nothing. It surprised him and left him unsure of how to continue, though he figured being polite would help.

"I'm Edward, it's a pleasure to meet you." He'd kissed her hand then, just lightly on the back of her knuckles, inhaling her delicious scent, like freesias. He'd pulled back quickly though, appalled at himself, as he felt the familiar pooling of venom in his mouth.

They'd talked well into the night, as though they'd known each other their whole lives, which he supposed they had, even if she didn't remember it. He remembered how easy it always was, how they'd just seemed to click and how he'd begged his father to speak to hers about them courting. He'd needed to know her, as more than just the girl he met at church. He enjoyed watching her as she spoke, noticing all the little mannerisms and nuances that were so typically Bella. How her cheeks would flame when he stared too long, or how she bit her lip and always gesticulated wildly. She was bright and life and he could feel himself falling in love all over again.

He'd walked her home that night. Long after everyone else had left the dance hall. He realised it may not be prudent to keep a young girl out this late, but it was a summer night, and the light had not yet gone from the sky. At her doorstep they'd stopped, neither wishing to say goodbye to this wonderful person they'd each met.

"Edward," she'd started, placing a hand on his arm, seemingly not bothered by his lack of body heat, "This may sound strange, but I feel I know you, from before today. It's strange, really. I suppose it just means we get on well doesn't it?" She'd laughed then, her voice like bells cutting straight into his dead heart.

"Yes I suppose it does." With a promise he would be back to call on her tomorrow he'd left, dropping a quiet kiss to her soft cheek, relishing in the warmth from the pooling of blood there.

As he ran home his heart ached for these second chances he seemed to be getting but would never take. How could he? When she was so alive and he was so…dead. Though he remembered every kiss and touch and caress they'd shared. He remembered how his human heart had beat faster when she was near and how it had been so easy to fall in love. How his mouth had been dry and his hands had shook when he'd finally asked her to marry him. Then the pure unadulterated elation he'd felt when she had said yes.

He could feel it now. That aching in his chest, and the hope blooming there as he fell in love again. What cruel being would hand him his lost love like this, when he was unable to take it, to be with her like he should be? So he'd run. Hunting and draining as many animals as he could in his wake, before running home to face his family and finally telling them the unbelievable truth.

Of course they'd barely believed him. Why should they? They themselves were inconceivable; creatures of the night, dead for all intents and purposes, who fed off the life force of other beings. But to say the girl he was betrothed to as a human, who should be an old woman now, was here, just as young and beautiful as she had been in Chicago, with no recollection of them meeting. It was absurd.

Rosalie had wanted to leave, she didn't want this to upset the balance she had finally found in her life. Her selfish nature couldn't see how she herself had upset the family nearly twenty years previous, by bringing her mate into the home, not that any of them would begrudge her that, though Edward wished she would get some perspective.

His mother, Esme, and Rosalie's mate, Emmett, were simple beings who thought what was meant to be, would be. So seeing as Bella had turned up in two of the places they'd lived, surely it was fate?

Carlisle, his maker and closest friend, was a little more practical. "If this is true Edward, and she is the same girl, there must be a reason for it. What that reason might be, I don't know. But I think it would be wise to leave her be, dragging her into our world would not be wise." He was right of course, he knew Carlisle was right, but it hurt to think of leaving her. He knew he would have to see her one last time.

He'd walked to her house to call on her, hoping to take her to the park and tell her he was leaving. Even though they'd only met the day previous, Edward knew she could feel this connection and it would be cruel to sever it with no prior knowledge.

He'd waited five minutes on her doorstep, ringing the bell till a grief stricken woman came to the door. The weight of her thoughts nearly crippled him, and he knew this to be Bella's mother, and the news she carried almost killed him, but he couldn't show it, for how could he know what she was about to tell him.

"Hello, Mrs. Swan, is Bella here?" He asked, an innocent expression on his face while inside his heart was breaking.

Mrs Swan broke down, her cries echoing down the empty street. A man had come to the door then, wrapping his arms around his wife, soothing her and rubbing her back before she left. Mr Swan had turned to him, a sombre expression on his face.

"I'm sorry to tell you son, but our Bella died last night." At the words, Edward allowed all the heartache he was feeling to show. His Bella was dead, and once again he was alone.

~O~

He never truly moved on. He'd found his human love, fallen in love with her again and then lost her. He wasn't sure he could ever truly move on from that. His family were supportive enough, they allowed him his space and never pushed him to interact with people.

He'd always hoped to find her again, every time he saw a flash of brown hair or pale skin, he would be on edge, hoping it was her, though it never was.

In the seventeen years since he'd last seen her, their family had gained another two members; Alice and Jasper. Alice turned out to be the closest thing to a sister Edward had ever had, he was never so close to Rosalie. She was sympathetic to his melancholic state, and always tried to make him happy and laugh. She was so terribly protective of her family and hated to see any part of it broken or in pain.

But he was empty. Throughout his existence he'd felt something was missing, but simply passed it off as missing his human life; his parents. But now he knew better. This hole inside him, eating away at his dead heart was where Bella should be.

He hadn't felt the hole close when last they'd met, not till she was gone did he realise it was there. Gaping and threatening to swallow him. Edward didn't know how to deal with it. He spent his days pacing his room, wondering what it all meant, pulling at his auburn hair, making it stand on end. He blocked out the thoughts of his family, of their worry. He couldn't think of it. All he could think of was long brown hair, deep chocolate eyes, plump red lips and pale skin pulled over collar bones. He couldn't think of all those parts together or else he'd go mad, but separate he could deal with it. He could imagine that she didn't die…again, and that he would see her again.

Of course he wasn't even sure if he wanted to see her again. Wouldn't it be better to only fall in love with her once, to only know her again for a day, than to know her like he used to, to be consumed by her and then to leave her? Because he'd have to lose her, he couldn't tell her about him, that was against all the rules and he could hardly drag her into his life anyway. What then? He would stay with her till she got old and died, but what of him then? Or was he to change her, damn her to this half life, this mere existence just so he never had to lose her again?

He wasn't sure he could deal with that.

~O~

In 1969 he saw her again. They were living in New York, and he'd managed to convince Alice and Jasper to see Led Zeppelin with him, one of the only modern bands he actually enjoyed. Jasper had been nervous at first, being around so many humans, their blood pumping was sure to be a challenge, but Alice's reassurances that he wouldn't hurt anyone boosted his confidence. And it was there he saw her.

Swaying her hips to Dazed and Confused, wearing flared jeans and a multi coloured paisley vest top. Her hair reached her waist, falling in soft waves as her hands ran through it, before circling above her head. He'd never seen anything so radiant and before he could stop himself he was next to her.

"Hey." He murmured as the band had a pause between songs

She replied in kind, smiling as she turned before abruptly stopping. He watched as she frowned, biting her lip softly. _Just like Bella, _he thought.

"Do I know you?" She asked, placing a hand on his arm before pulling it back. "Damn you're cold, man." She spoke like she was thinking, staring at her hand. Could she remember him? He didn't dare hope, but if she did what would that mean?

"I don't think so, and yeah, bad circulation."

"Frigid."

They stopped talking then as Robert Plant started into Communication Breakdown, and the crowd began jumping, singing and dancing and generally going a little crazy. Edward loved it. In a place like this the thoughts of humans were simply a hum in the back of his mind, but if he were to concentrate he still couldn't discern individual thoughts. It was bliss.

He spent the rest of the night next to her, breathing in her intoxicating scent, trying to penetrate that silent mind of hers and simply relishing in her presence. Before long the set was over and people began filing out.

"Where are you going now?" He asked, not sure what he was about to do but knowing he couldn't let her walk out of here and never see her again, New York was a big place after all.

"I'm going home, how about you?"

"Can I walk you?"

"Sure." She shrugged, grabbing his hand and leading the way to the doors. Her hand was tiny in his and he relished the contact, the pulse of static he seemed to get from their connection.

Once outside they met Alice and Jasper, their thoughts in sync as they wondered who this girl was and what was going on.

"Hi, I'm Alice, Edwards sister, you are?" She asked, bouncing up to her and holding her hand out for her to shake. It was then that Edward realised he didn't know her name, as far as he knew this was Bella, but he'd never actually asked.

"Bella, it's nice to meet you." Her cheeks blushed and Edward almost laughed at how predictable she was.

"Anyway, I promised to walk you home didn't I? I'll see you guys at home." He steered her away, trying to get away from the questions flying at him, they were so shocked that _this_ could be Bella.

"Edward." She murmured, turning to watch him as they walked in silence, "Suits you really. But are you sure we haven't met before?"

"I'm positive." He lied.

As they walked they discussed their lives, though really they only discussed Bella's, Edward managing to deflect all questions back to her. He discovered she was studying the classics at university, how she was fascinated by Oscar Wilde and adored the poetry of W. B. Yeats. She had turned to walk backwards when speaking of poetry, and how it was her first love but her mother made her take English instead to "keep her options open". Bella didn't enjoy being told what to do. She was a free spirit, free to be and do as she pleased. She was waving her hands about and speaking of the passionate love this man felt for a woman named Maud Gonne, though she rejected him all his life, and how that came into his poetry.

"She who had brought great Hector down," she quoted, "'And put all Troy to wreck.'" she sighed then, turning to face forward and falling into step with him, "Don't think I haven't noticed the fact you haven't answered any of my questions. What exactly are you hiding?"

"Absolutely nothing." He smiled, "Where are you from anyway? You don't sound like a local girl?" he asked, wondering if she had always been in the city, simply waiting for him.

"I was born in Skibbereen, a tiny island off of Cork, Ireland."

"But you don't sound Irish either?"

"Well I wouldn't, I only lived there maybe eight, nine years." She laughed then, "Surely I can pop the accent on though." He smiled at her broad accent, he'd only heard one other Irish person in his long life, and it was interesting to see his Bella as someone from the emerald isle.

She came to stop outside an old high rise apartment block, complete with black metal fire escapes and a crazy hobo out front. He didn't like the idea of his precious Bella living in such a run down place of the city.

"Well this is me." She gestured to the building, but made no move to leave, "I must have seen you somewhere, I'm sure of it." She frowned as she fiddled with her keys, "I must have just been high." She laughed then and Edward was sure it was the most brilliant sound he had ever heard.

"Must have been." He mumbled, feeling terrible for lying to her, the girl he had never had to keep anything from before, but what could he tell her? She wasn't that girl from Chicago anymore.

"So I better be going, are you sure you don't want to come in? Have some coffee?"

"I'm sure Bella, it was lovely meeting you though."

"Cheers, it was pretty fab seeing you too." She turned to enter the building and Edward stood on the pavement, watching as she opened the door and stopped, "Will I see you tomorrow?"

Edward remembered the last time she'd asked that. He'd said yes then, too, but he hadn't seen her tomorrow, because she'd died. Just like this Bella would.

She smiled brightly and said goodbye, but Edward waited, listening to her footsteps as she ran up the stairs and unlocked her apartment door, before running home himself.

There were questions waiting for him of course. Alice and Jasper had filled the family in on what had happened so now everyone wanted to know what was going on, and how that girl could possibly be Bella when she should be an old woman by now, if not already dead.

"I don't know." He replied to all, "All I know is that, that _is_ Bella. Carlisle, surely you remember her?" he pleaded.

"I do, but until I see her I can't confirm if what you're seeing is correct." He replied.

"She knows me." Edward was becoming frustrated, why couldn't they just believe him, "On some level, she knows me, and she looks and sounds just like her, they have the same name!" He threw his hands in the air in aggravation, "I don't understand it anymore than you do, but I'm telling you it's her."

His family watched as he prowled and paced around the living room. Of course they all wished it was true, even Rosalie. Who wouldn't? The love of his life being here after all this time, it would be a miracle. But how would they deal with it if it was true?

"Look, I'm seeing her tomorrow, and I will continue to see her until we leave, so can you just…pretend to be happy for me?" he asked, begging his family to believe him, but knowing from their thoughts they were reluctant to even try.

"Why should we be happy for you?" Rosalie asked. He scoffed, of course his sister couldn't be happy for anyone, why should she be when she herself isn't happy?

"I don't know Rose, maybe because we're family?"

"You'll fall in love with her." She spoke softly, aware he could hear her thoughts before she spoke, "And then we'll leave, and eventually she'll die. Then what? Am I supposed to be happy that sometime in the future you're going to be heartbroken? I don't think so brother."

Edward was floored, but would not be deterred. "I can handle it." Though he wasn't sure if he could. He knew Rosalie was right. At some point they would leave and he would have to leave her, and then sometime after that she would die, and maybe not from old age either. Humans were incredibly fragile beings, and as he remembered Bella had always been clumsy, anything could happen to her.

But maybe this Bella wasn't, maybe she was stable on her feet and didn't trip over thin air. What did he really know about her except that she looked like his lost love, spoke like her, shared her name and seemed to recognise him?

He ignored his families thoughts for the rest of the night, choosing to prowl in the solitude of his room, though the distance really made no difference to a vampire. Sometimes he hated his existence. He could hear everything, including every thought that passed through someone's head. It allowed no lies. No privacy. He knew just how women fantasised about him, and about how they feared him. About how his family feared _for_ him, afraid he was seeing things. They weren't sure if a vampire _could_ go mad, but in their minds, he was.

He'd never been able to predict Bella, he remembered. She'd always surprised him. Everyone else (from what he could remember) was simple. He could tell when someone was lying and everyone hated him for it. But with Bella, he had no clue. She was surprising and he enjoyed it. Apparently she still could surprise him; he couldn't read her thoughts. Nor could he back in England. It was something to think about, but dawn had broken and it was time to see Bella.

She was alive when he got there, bouncing about in corduroy flares and an orange top; she'd always enjoyed bright colours, and thankfully she was alive every day after that.

They met every lunch for coffee, which Edward would pretend to drink while she told him all about her studies and occasionally he would speak of his own. He was studying chemistry, a subject he had only a meagre knowledge of, so it was something he was enjoying a great deal. Some nights she would invite him to the many parties she attended. And he would watch while she got high or drank too much and laughed loudly and danced freely, but she always came back to him, and he always made sure she got home safely.

Soon spring turned to summer and the days became longer. Bella revelled in the sun, which was a shame as Edward couldn't dare step into the light for fear of exposing himself. So he became photosensitive, allergic to the sun. Bella understood, just like he knew she would. She complained about how they wouldn't be able to lie on her roof together, but she would visit him every night when the sun went in.

When Carlisle first met her, he could barely speak. This _was_ Bella. It was astonishing, and impossible. Edward rejected his impossibility and simply enjoyed her presence. He blocked out the world, the passing days, his family, and devoted all his time to worshipping this woman.

The first time she met Jasper, she blushed, saying she had never met a true southern gentleman. He'd shook her hand and kissed it though he didn't breathe, all the while telling Edward in his mind about how much Bella loved him. How she was inexplicably devoted to him and was incredibly intrigued by him, but confused. Jasper didn't understand her confusion, but Edward did. She remembered him, but didn't understand why. It didn't take much to figure out.

He could barely accept the notion of her loving him, she barely knew him. He was a monster, a murderer, a parasite. How could someone as pure and perfect as his Bella love him?

Summer passed and he ignored his families warnings. It was getting into dangerous territory. The point of no return. She was becoming more confident of her feelings, and more confident around the family, but also more suspicious. She knew something wasn't quite right, but she didn't know what. Bella was a bright girl, Edward didn't think it would take her much longer to figure out.

Mid August rolled around and Bella, Edward and the Cullens headed to White Lake to attend Woodstock Music and Art Fair. Alice had been harping on about it for near to a year, it was the only reason they moved to New York in the first place, and now it was here she was bouncing where she stood.

_People will talk about this for years Edward, you'll see._

He wasn't so sure, but humoured her enthusiasm.

The weekend was a roaring success, him and Bella becoming closer than ever. Though she did notice his lack of eating eventually, she was high a lot of the time so it made no real difference.

On Monday, the closing day of the festival, they stood in the crowd listening to Hendrix. Bella had been irritable all day but he just put it down to lack of sleep. But since the beginning of the day she'd been hopping all over the place, scratching at her arms, pulling at her hair. Jasper said she was in tremendous pain but none of them could understand why.

"Hot, so hot. God it hurts. Shit." She was mumbling under her breath, scaring Edward with her words.

"Maybe we should move back to the tent?" Edward asked, placing his arms softly across her shoulders. She flinched as though scolded.

"Don't touch me. God, it makes it worse. Like needles."

They moved quickly through the crowd, trying desperately to get her back to Carlisle so he might do something to help her. As they reached the tent Jasper came running out, attempting to calm her but failing miserably. They settled her on the floor as Carlisle asked her questions about what was happening to her. She said she was burning, like hot needles burning her from the inside. She was delirious and her heart rate was sky rocketing, Jasper had to leave in case he hurt her.

_Did you bite her?_ Carlisle thought, but Edward shook his head. Why would he think that? _This is very much like the change, think back to your own. Like hot needles wasn't it?_

How could she be feeling such pain as would indicate a vampire change? No venom had come anywhere near her blood. How was this possible? Edward was panicking, seeing his love thrashing and in pain was killing him, what could he do?

"Edward," She murmured, "Edward, I found you, I found you."

"I'm right here, you don't need to find me." He looked pleadingly at Carlisle, "Isn't there anything you can do for her?" Carlisle shook his head sadly, causing Edward to nearly scream in frustration. His love was dying and there was nothing he could do but watch her go.

"Knew I'd seen your face before. Thought you could lie to me." Edward shared a frightened look with Alice.

"But we haven't met before."

"Of course we have. Silly man." Her breathing hitched and became laboured then, and if at all possible her heart beat faster against her ribs, "Love you." Then her heart stopped.

~O~

Edward was inconsolable after Bella's death. Nothing his family did could lift his melancholy. He was cold. He'd never felt so cold before. They moved swiftly away from New York, but he didn't take notice of where they went. For more than thirty years they moved, not speaking of the girl he'd met and fell in love with. Who'd died in front of his eyes when there was nothing they could do to save her.

He spoke to no one for months, but no one tried to speak to him either. He had cocooned himself in his grief. Perpetually mourning the loss of his love. He stopped hoping to see her, stopped glancing back at girls with long brown hair and pale skin. He stopped seeing the world around him, period.

His family was at a loss. They'd never felt the type of loss he had, never known what it was to lose a life partner, so they had no real idea how to make it better for him.

They moved to the Pacific North West, where the bleak skies would allow them to move freely during the day, and the large expanse of forest would allow for a plentiful hunting ground. It was Alice's idea, because she had a plan.

Three years before the move she had a vision. It was of Edward; happy. If tears were possible she would have cried at the scene, Edward smiling in a meadow with someone there. Though she couldn't see who. She asked around about the meadow and found out from Esme that it was in a place called Forks in Washington state, where she had lived with Carlisle and Edward early in her new life. So she bided her time and when it came to move again she suggested they go to Forks.

They settled in quickly, beginning at the local high school and separating themselves from the human populace. And while Edward mourned the loss of his Bella, Alice began digging.

Carlisle had always kept extensive records of his life. Where he went, who he met, what he did there. He also had an archive of every newspaper printed since he came to America in 1856, and this was just what Alice was after. She spent days on end in the archives, flipping through old papers carefully looking for news of one Isabella Swan, Edwards first Bella.

In the Chicago Chronicle, dated August twentieth 1918 was a death notice. Mr and Mrs Swan's daughter, Isabella had died two days before from unknown causes in a back alley, two streets away from the general hospital where Edward lay dying. She showed the paper to Carlisle, asking if he knew anything about it, but he didn't. August twentieth was the day Edward awoke from his change, so he had a lot more on his mind than the death of one girl in an alley.

It gave Alice a lot to think about. Bella had died the first day of Edwards change, seemingly on her way to the hospital to see him; though by then he wasn't there, Carlisle having already moved him to a more secure location. Why would she have been out so late?

She continued looking through the archives till she found a second mention of Isabella Swan. In the Lake City People she found another death notice, Bella had died of unknown causes on August eighteenth 1935, the same day as his first Bella. When asked Carlisle knew nothing of it, he wasn't sure why they even had that paper as the family wasn't living in Tennessee at the time. She filed the information away to think back to later before continuing with her search.

She found three more mentions; all death notices and nearly all dated the eighteenth of August. One was from the London Times from 1952 and the other was the New York Guardian in 1969, though she had died August 14th then, the last time he'd seen her. The last was dated August 18th 1987, when they'd lived in Ohio, but Alice didn't remember ever meeting a Bella Swan there. Each were for an Isabella Swan and each stated she died of unknown causes, though the ones from New York and Ohio insinuated she may have had a heart attack, though it seemed unlikely due to her age. Only Alice and her family knew how she'd died, though none of them knew why.

Alice wasn't sure what to make of her knowledge, but decided she would simply file it away to think on later. She was thankful for her brother's lack of interest in the goings on of the family; because she simply couldn't risk him discovering her plot.

Their time in Forks was slow and steady, nothing dramatic occurring. Alice was beginning to lose hope in her vision ever happening after they'd been there two years, but she had no way of knowing when it would occur. Edward was just as morose as ever, hunting only when necessary and speaking just as often. Esme was beginning to lose hope she would ever get her son back. She remembered when she'd first met him, after her own change. He had been broody, yes, but also quick witted and often funny. But the years had taken their toll on Edward, after his time away to pursue an _alternative _lifestyle, and after the many times he had found Bella only to lose her again, he seemed to have simply lost hope. He was no longer living but simply existing. She wished there was something she could do to make it better.

There was nothing anyone could do though, the day Bella died in that field was the day Edward felt his un-dead heart break and die with her. Nothing could hold his interest anymore. Not the blood of the animals he drained or, he was ashamed to say, his family. The creatures who had been with him his whole existence no longer held any meaning to him. He knew how his family despaired for him, wishing there was something they could do to make it better. But there was nothing, he was a lost cause and he had resigned himself to that fact.

It was another morose cloud ridden day in March when everything changed.

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_Let me know what you think please_

_I'm on twitter missrebecca_12 if you want to follow me...pester me about updating sooner and the like :)_


	3. The Middle

**As ever all publicly recognised characters are the property of their owner and creator Stephenie Meyer, who is in no way affiliated with this piece of literary fiction. No copyright infringement is intended.**

**Once again I've had some lovely feedback and I just wanna say a huge thank you to all my reviewers :) you're just wonderful**

**So this is being posted a little earlier than planned but I have work to do now so yeah, fun times. **

**Hope you enjoy this**

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A Love Story For The Ages

A Twilight Fanfiction by missrebecca

Chapter 2

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Isabella Swan had always had dreams. Dreams of a pale man with auburn hair, sometimes he had green eyes, other times his eyes were the colour of honey. But he was always the same. She didn't know his name, or why she dreamt of him, but she knew one thing; she was in love with this man.

She wasn't sure how one can love a dream except that she did. She often found herself crying as she awoke, sad to leave such a beautiful man behind, but she knew it was more than that. She was drawn to this dream man, with his soft smile and messy hair. She dreamt of him throughout time. She saw him in coat tails of the twenty's then in the smart dress of the fifties, but more often than not she dreamt of him in jeans and a Rolling Stones shirt, swaying to the sound of Led Zeppelin.

Bella didn't know why she dreamed these things, she didn't understand what happened in them; only that these weren't_ just _dreams.

They weren't fuzzy like dreams tended to be, and they weren't quick. She could hear things in them; she knew what he was going to say though she didn't know his name, and she knew how cold his skin would be to touch when he had honey coloured eyes. To Bella they seemed to be more like memories than dreams, but she couldn't understand how she could have memories of a man, who never seemed to age, spanning a century. But the dreams weren't the issue right then because it was her first day at a new school, in the middle of the school year and she could not be more nervous if she tried.

Bella wasn't typically a shy or nervous person, however she simply hated being the centre of attention, and in a town where the population was 3246 she was bound to be noticed. She couldn't regret her decision though, she was moving for her mother, so she might be happy travelling with her new husband and not burdened by her teenage daughter.

So she moved to Forks, Washington to live with her father the police chief. She was excited, sort of, to see her dad, a man she barely saw once a year over summer and had never gotten to know as a daughter usually does her father. She was not however, excited for the weather. She was fair skinned by nature but she loved the sun. The way it warmed her skin and made the air thick. In Forks she would be lucky to see the sun a couple of weeks out of the year, their weather pattern was a little different to Arizona.

The car ride from the airport to Forks was quiet in Charlie's police cruiser. Neither knowing exactly what to say to the other. Bella didn't mind though, she didn't need the silence to be filled with false chatter; so her and her father had nothing to talk about, there was nothing new there. He helped her carry the bags up to her room, a room gone unchanged since she'd last slept in it nearly ten years before. It was definitely time for a makeover.

"I got you some new bed sheets." He muttered after placing her suitcase on the purple bed spread.

"Yeah, it's great." And that was that. He went downstairs, saying they'd go to the diner for dinner in a couple of hours before leaving her to settle in. She looked around the room, out the window to the grey cloud filled sky. So this was her life?

Unpacking didn't take long when you didn't bring a lot with you, so after less than an hour she was at a loss. What to do now? she thought, as she pulled her laptop out of the bag, waiting as it dialled up she heard a rumble. Thunder, typical. She rolled her eyes as she emailed her mother, letting her know she was okay and Charlie was great as was the town. Her mother didn't need to know she was miserable.

"Bells!" her father shouted to her from downstairs. She quickly finished the email before hopping up and sprinting down the stairs (or as fast as one can go when you're as clumsy as Bella) to see what Charlie wanted.

"Yeah?"

"Come see this." She frowned but followed.

Sitting in the driveway, surrounded by her father, a young Native American boy and who she presumed was his father in a wheelchair, who were all beaming, was an ancient burnt orange Chevrolet truck. It didn't look like it had been washed since it was new, and the bulbous hood looked like it would win a fight against any other vehicle; it was perfect.

"What do you think?"

She looked to her father in confusion, "It's great." But she didn't understand why she was being asked.

"Yeah? Well it's yours, a homecoming present." She couldn't quite tell behind his thick moustache, but she was pretty sure he was smirking, the cheeky old man.

"Dad, that's….wow…thanks so much." She was overcome really, it was such a lovely gesture, from a man she hadn't seen in nearly a year.

"It's good to have you back Bella, Charlie's been going on about it since he found out you'd be coming home." The old native in the wheelchair spoke. Bella recognised him, but just couldn't put a name to the face.

"You remember Billy Black?"

"Oh yeah, course. How've you been?"

"Still dancing." She laughed along with him, he had a pretty black sense of humour when it came to his accident.

The men got to talking, something about a game on TV but she didn't take much notice, she was left with the boy, he looked only just younger than her, he couldn't have been older than sixteen, if that.

"I'm Jacob." He said, as though it should mean something which, she was ashamed to say, it didn't, "You'd come over to play with my sisters?"

"Oh right. Rachel and Rebecca. I remember now." She didn't really.

Soon after the Blacks left, Charlie and Bella headed to the diner for a quiet meal. People greeted her, telling her they were glad she was finally home, she thanked them and didn't once say how Forks didn't feel like home. When Charlie brought up the fact that most nights he ate there, or just ordered in she felt duty bound to tell him she could cook, partly for him but mostly for her. No way was she going to be eating out every night.

The following day was her first day at the new school and for once she was hoping she'd have a quiet dreamless night before she went. She didn't think she could deal with heartache her first day.

~O~

The school was just as she imagined it would be. Small and not nearly as busy as her school back in Phoenix had been. After parking her incredibly loud truck she moved quickly to the office building, hoping it would simply be the first one she came to. The receptionist she found was a lovely middle aged lady named Mrs Cope, who knew exactly who she was after she first set foot in the office; they were expecting her.

"And this is the map of the school and your timetable. If you have any trouble don't hesitate to ask someone, every one here's real nice." Bella nodded and shoved the paper into her bag, before turning and heading out into the foray.

Her first classes passed in a blur, in English she sat next to a girl called Jessica who talked her ear off and seemed to decide to "take her under her wing". Straight off Bella could tell she was a gossip. But at least she now knew someone, and had someone to sit with in the cafeteria.

At lunch she was introduced to Jessica's friends. She didn't remember all the names, but was told the boy named Mike had biology with her next so he could show her the way. As if she could get lost in this tiny place.

She was picking at her food, thinking over the dream she'd had last night. He'd had green eyes, and had been down on one knee. It was a dream she'd never had before, but it was undeniable what was happening. He was asking her to marry him. She'd awoken crying again, sad that this wonderful man wasn't real and wasn't in fact asking her to marry him, which was such an absurd thing to be crying over really. He wasn't real, it was a dream, and she'd long ago given up on the idea of marriage after seeing her own parents dissolve.

However it was while she was thinking this over that the door to the cafeteria opened. She might not have noticed if it wasn't in her line of sight, though how she could have missed the entrance of such beautiful people she didn't know. For from the door twirled in a tiny girl, laughing and smiling, holding the hand of a blond boy, with a look of supreme concentration covering his face. But it wasn't just their pale skin and graceful natures that drew Bella in; she knew them. She'd seen them, in her dreams. How could they be here?

Following them was another couple, a beautiful blonde girl, though she was more woman than girl, wrapped in the arms of an equally beautiful large dark haired man. Again she knew them, she knew their pale skin and stoic expressions. But most of all she knew that close up their eyes would be honey coloured.

She was staring at the door, waiting. If they were here what was to say he wouldn't be. The man literally of her dreams. If his family were here, for she was sure they were his family, where was he?

"I see you've noticed the Cullens," Jessica whispered. The name sent chills down Bella's spine, she knew that name, she was sure of it. "That's Alice, Jasper, Rosalie and Emmet," She continued, not caring that Bella wasn't looking at her, "Not sure where Edward is though."

Bella jumped as though electrified, "Bella, are you okay?" Jessica asked, but she didn't hear. All she could hear, see and feel were images. _Edward_. That was his name. With his bronze hair and cold skin and honey coloured eyes. Though sometimes they were green. They were green when they first met, she realised. The first time they met he had green eyes, every time after that his eyes were gold. What had changed?

She remembered burning in an alley, burning in her bed, burning in a tent surrounded by these beautiful people. She remembered screaming, and searching, always searching. But what for?

Her head was pounding and her heart was thundering, what was going on? Who was this boy and how did she know him in so many different time frames?

Then they stopped, her breathing stopped, her heart skipped a beat and all thought paused. She couldn't hear Jessica asking her worried questions nor could she see the worried glances Alice was shooting her way, for her eyes had landed on something much more glorious.

There, framed in the doorway, was her dream. His hair messy and his body clad in black, a strict juxtaposition to his family who donned shades of alabaster and cream. And he was staring straight at her. A frown on his forehead and shock twisting his mouth. He didn't move but simply stood there, staring. Before long though he shook his head, seeming to mutter something under his breath and moved off to the table with the rest of his family.

_Why had he broken the contact? _she thought, as her breathing continued and she shrunk into her seat. Why was her heart breaking? Why did she suddenly feel so sick she could barely stand to look at the food before her? Why had he ignored the current flowing between them?

She was jolted from her thoughts when the bell signifying the end of lunch rang and she followed Mike quickly into the corridor, barely restraining the urge to look back for Edward.

"Are you okay, Bella? You look a little pale?" Mike was a nice boy she realised, if a little fresh faced. She nodded she was okay and passed quickly by him to hand her slip of attendance to the teacher.

"That's great Miss Swan, if you'd just take the seat next to Mr Cullen and we'll get started."

She bit her lip and closed her eyes as she turned, but as she opened them she realised she wasn't dreaming, and she hadn't misheard the teacher. The only empty seat in the room was next to Edward, and her heart was already doing cartwheels because of it. She couldn't stop the movement of her body as she walked steadily towards the back of the room where his desk was, staring transfixed into his eyes as he watched her every move.

"Hello." She murmured as she sat, observing how his hands clenched into fists on the desk.

"Hello." She gasped at his voice. A voice she heard in her thoughts every night, ever since she could remember, she'd heard that voice. Like velvet stroking her to sleep. She couldn't deny her dreams were real, that she had met this man before.

"Edward-" She stopped as he turned the full force of his gaze onto her. What was she to say, "Have we met in another life?" How crazy would that sound? She opened her mouth to speak, to ask him why she was feeling this way, what her dreams meant and why she felt this longing and a hole she'd never noticed closing with his mere presence?

She didn't speak though, and sighed sadly as he turned his frowning face back to the teacher who was just beginning the class. She wasn't getting any answers today.

They were silent throughout the rest of the lesson, each sticking to their own sides of the desk and ignoring the tension between them, and when the bell finally rang Bella was out of her seat and out of the room faster than a bullet from a gun. Of course when she looked at her timetable to find her last lesson of the day, she wished she'd taken her time. She had _gym_, the most dastardly and despicable lesson of all time when you're as balance challenged as Bella. She was the most uncoordinated person she knew, and she did not enjoy gym.

Two hours and a few bruised shins later, the whole class knew just how incompetent Bella was at football. Next week was badminton, though she really hoped the coach rethought the idea of giving her a racket. She shook her head as she half limped to her truck, she should have a note or something permanently excluding her from something so embarrassing.

Her bag was thrown onto the passenger seat and she was just about to hoist herself up into the truck when she was stopped by Alice Cullen tapping her shoulder. Up close she was even more beautiful than Bella remembered from her dreams. Her eyes were shining and she was tiny, surely she hadn't been so small before. Jasper was with her, his face pulled into one of confusion and suspicion. So he recognised her too?

"Yes Alice?" She asked before thinking. Her eyes widened, was she supposed to know their names? In a school so small surely everyone knew everyone else's names, and it's not as though they blended in. She calmed slightly, it would be perfectly fine for her to know her name.

"You're Isabella, Isabella Swan?" Alice asked, a pleading tone to her voice and Bella watched as Jasper flashed a look over his shoulder, she followed his gaze and found Edward almost being restrained by the large one, Emmett.

"Yeah but call me Bella." She replied, her eyes focused on Edward, it was as though they were magnets, naturally drawn to each other.

"Well it was nice meeting you." Alice replied, the largest smile over taking her face as she turned and left, Jasper in tow.

_How strange, _she thought, before hopping into her truck and driving home.

~O~

That night she dreamt. All her memories of Edward culminating into one.

They started at the beginning when he had green eyes and they played chess, or drank iced tea on her porch. But her favourite was when he snuck into her window and kissed her, truly kissed her. He wasn't held back by chaperones and being respectful in public. He kissed her with all the passion he had and she kissed him back. Then he asked her to marry him and then he was dying.

He was dying she remembered, the Spanish influenza. It had killed his parents and it was killing him. She remembered burning, running through dark, dirty streets and burning. Twisting and screaming in agony as she burned, but she needed to see him, to get to him, to _find_ him. Then there was nothing.

The next memory was later, she could tell because he had honey coloured eyes and his skin was cold. He would tense when she touched him unexpectedly, but he was polite. She only had one memory of him like that, in his pale grey suit and dark green tie. They were walking, walking her home she realised. And they'd said goodbye on her front step. But that was it, because then there'd been pain, and itching and a burning deep inside her. But this time she couldn't move to find him. She couldn't move to do anything. Then darkness fell again.

The next set of memories rushed by, as though her brain was trying to make her see before the night was over and she would awaken. Flashes of music, of flares and bright colours. Of New York skylines and fields. Dancing and singing and smoking. Of him laughing with her, not eating. He didn't eat, she noticed that then. Why didn't he eat?

Then she'd burned and she'd known. She known as she'd burned in that tent, surrounded by them, as Edward cried for his father to do something. She'd recognised him - his father. He was the doctor who saw to Edward in the hospital. Where had it been? Chicago. Chicago was where it started.

After the darkness consumed her again but before she woke up she had a moment of clarity. She was Isabella Swan, who had died, so many times before and nearly each time had known this man named Edward Cullen, and at one point was going to marry him. But he had been dying, so how did he survive? And how did he still look the same?

_Except he wasn't the same was he, _she thought. He _had _changed, his skin was colder and paler, his eyes a different colour and if possible he was even more beautiful.

She needed to know what was going on. She needed to speak to Edward Cullen and find out exactly what was happening to her.

~O~

There was of course one flaw to her plan, she realised - she was terrified.

What if it was all a delusion; a farce created by her mind? What if she was going insane? She would make such a fool of herself, but wouldn't it be better if she knew?

For what if it wasn't a farce, what if it was real and she really was the same girl from Chicago, back when he had green eyes and soft features?

She found herself hysterical in the shower. Soaping up her hair and body as it seized and jolted with uncontrollable laughter till tears rolled down her face and she dissolved into scared sobs. Bella simply couldn't believe this was happening to her, that she may be the reincarnate of a girl who'd died so many times before, each time after meeting such a beautiful man she really knew nothing about.

Her life was so ordinary. She was a dreamer, who lived in fantasies of being swept off her feet by Prince Charming, who would take her away to a far off exotic land where they would live happily ever after. But for something extraordinary to actually happen to her, it was absurd. She was the plainest girl she knew, she had generic brown eyes and brown hair, she was average height and weight. There was nothing distinguishing about her, so why should she have such an other worldly back story?

After dressing she ran outside to her truck, without snagging anything to eat. She was way too nervous to be bothered by food. She still had no clue what she was going to say to him. She didn't know how to process what her brain was telling her was true. She lived in the real world, not one of fantasies and fairytales. She wasn't particularly religious either, she definitely didn't believe in reincarnation, and yet, wasn't that exactly what had happened to her?

So many questions and no time to answer them. She needed to talk to Edward and find out who he was, and how she knew him.

Before she really had any time to prepare for what was coming, she had arrived in the school parking lot, with absolutely no recollection of driving there, lost in her thoughts as she was. She was shaking and was pretty sure she was going to be violently sick, which would be so embarrassing. But she could see his car, though none of the Cullens were near it thankfully, and she just knew that somewhere in the building was Edward. And she still had _no_ idea what she was going to say to him.

She walked numb through her classes, not hearing her teachers or Jessica chattering in her ear. At lunch she ate nothing, too transfixed thinking of what she was going to say to the beautiful man sitting only a few yards away at the formica table with his family. She couldn't understand how she knew them, but she had come to accept it. She'd simply realised it was 'one of those things'. However she needed to know if this was mutual, did he too know her? Or was it all in her own mind?

She got sick on the way to biology, petrified of facing him. She almost chickened out, but knew for the sake of her sanity (what was left of it) she needed answers, and the only way to get them would be to speak to Edward. They were silent as they sat next to each other at the worn desk, each very aware of the space between them and how little effort it would take to close the gap. She didn't understand how she was drawn to him, though she realised it probably had something to do with the fact she'd known him so long, even if she didn't remember it fully.

A minute before the bell signalling the end of the lesson was to ring, as everyone was packing away the slides they'd been using, Bella grasped what little courage she had and placed a shaking hand on Edwards frozen arm.

"Edward, I need to talk to you," she whispered, too afraid to raise her voice any louder, thankfully he heard her and nodded ever so slightly before leading the way out of the classroom. Bella trotted along quickly to keep up with his long strides through the corridors and around the side of the gym to a secluded spot on the edge of the tree line. Maybe she should have felt scared about being alone with a boy who she really didn't know, but she couldn't help feeling safe in Edwards presence, at least until he spoke.

"Well, what is it?" he asked tersely, arms folded defensively across his chest. His eyes, Bella noticed, which in her memories always looked so warm and welcoming, today looked like cold chips of jet. She wasn't afraid, simply uneasy.

"Do I know you?" she started, before realising how utterly ridiculous she sounded and qualifying, "I mean, before yesterday. Do I know you? I swear I do." Bella was almost begging him with her eyes to tell her the truth, to tell her she wasn't crazy, and these dreams weren't dreams at all, but memories. Of course her begging was all for naught.

"I'm sorry but I hadn't seen you before yesterday," she watched as his mouth tightened into a thin line, and his muscles tensed almost imperceptibly, but Bella was looking. She watched every move he made, almost without being able to help it. He was lying.

"You're lying," she called him out, frowning and shifting so she stood closer to him, invading his personal space. She wasn't about to let him get away with this, "I know you are. Why won't you tell me the truth, Edward Cullen? That you know me, and you know why." She was sure of it now, he knew something. It was in the slight crease in his forehead and the tensing of his jaw, as though he was trying to keep a secret inside. He knew about the memories, and why she had them.

"I have no idea what you're talking about, sorry." She almost said something, before he apologised, but seeing the utter helplessness on his face she realised maybe he was sorry, and surely she could forgive him.

Thinking about it, if her memories were true and this was the same boy from all those years ago, who had green eyes and got down on one knee, wouldn't he be hurting? If he'd been there every time she'd died? She couldn't imagine what he might have gone through, watching, what she supposed was, the love of his life dying over and over. So maybe she could cut him some slack, but she wouldn't let him off the hook completely.

She frowned before smiling, "Sorry, I must have been thinking of someone else."

"Must have," he muttered, before turning to leave, but how could she let this boy walk away?

"Wait, Edward!" She called, running to catch up where he'd stopped, "Seeing as we're already late, do you fancy ditching last period and getting some ice cream? It would be nice to get to know someone in this town."

He seemed to pause, observing the scuff marks on his shoes before he tilted his head to the side, peeking those eyes, that were slowly lightening to their normal honey tone, at her through the mess that was his hair, "I don't eat ice cream."

"So, you can take _me_ for ice cream then. Come on Edward, be the courteous gentleman," she laughed as she started walking towards his silver car, but stopped when she realised he wasn't walking, but instead was looking at her with wide eyes and pursed lips. If she wasn't so confused it would have been comical.

She couldn't understand what had been said until she thought back and it clicked. She'd said that in one of her dreams, back when she wore flowered tops and bell bottom jeans. _So he did remember._

"Come on," she prompted, deciding to leave the past for now. Right now she wanted to get to know this Edward, looking so much like he does in her dreams.

Finally he joined her and they walked quickly to the car, in case they got caught and jumped in before Edward tore the car out of the lot, off onto the highway.

"So where're we going?" Bella asked, relaxed with her feet propped onto the front console.

"Port Angeles, that way your Police Chief father won't know we're playing hooky." And for the first time he smiled, really smiled, flashing those brilliant white teeth her way, the skin around his eyes crinkling with joy, so she couldn't help but laugh with him. She felt so carefree, so liberated. Her eyes closed in contentment, letting the sounds of Led Zeppelin from the stereo wash over her. She was in heaven.

~O~

Edward on the other hand, was sure he'd found purgatory. How could she be here again? In this town, in this year, hell how did she end up in his car? He thought he was dreaming when he first saw those deep brown eyes staring at him in the cafeteria, but then she'd sat next to him in biology, and he knew he couldn't be dreaming. She was real and once again she was here, but how would it end this time?

It had been nearly unbearable to lie to her, when his every instinct was shouting at him to tell the truth, but what could he say to her? He could hardly tell her he was a vampire and had been in love with her for near ninety years, even if she did appear to have an inkling into what had gone on.

But getting involved with her again couldn't be good. Last time he had to watch her burn Carlisle had compared it to a vampires change, so surely it had something to do with him? However Edward drew a blank when thinking of how he could have influenced his poor Bella.

Eventually they reached the ice cream parlour, the occupants of the car silent the whole way. He'd snuck glances of Bella resting her head against the seat, her eyes closed, as she listened to the sounds from the stereo. She had looked so beautiful. They didn't speak again until they reached the counter and Edward bought her a large tub of raspberry ripple ice cream, and they'd found a table to sit at under the window.

"So why did you move here?" He asked, surprising her by speaking first.

"Well my Mom, Renee, remarried so I figured I'd move in with my Dad. Give them some time to be newlyweds you know?" Bella replied, before concentrating on her ice cream. She wasn't usually so open with someone she barely knew, but thinking about it, she did know him. It was all so confusing.

He laughed though, which in turn made her smile, "Yeah, I can understand that."

They talked more, though Bella noticed it was really only her talking and telling him about her life. He was an expert at avoidance, and she realised he'd done it before. It was like her dreams were repeating themselves, so would they all end the same? She desperately hoped not.

Before long Edward had to drive them back to school, his siblings would be waiting and surely they would have a ton of questions for him. He'd tried so hard to stop Alice from going to Bella yesterday, but Emmett had been against him and had held him back. What must Bella have thought of Alice? If she remembered him, could it be possible she remembered everyone else? How he wished he could read her mind.

They said goodbye at her truck and he watched in silence as she drove away. That thing was a death trap, and he was just a little more than wary of Bella driving such a dilapidated vehicle. Edward didn't speak on the car ride home and refused to engage his family in conversation when he got there, choosing instead to run quickly to his room and lock himself inside, a sure sign to everyone that he needed to be alone.

He had no clue of what to do. His whole being was screaming at him to go to her, to see her, if only from afar. To watch her and protect her, to make sure nothing happened to her. And ultimately to love her, and make her love him in return. But a small part of him, which was managing to overrule the majority, whispered to leave her be. It wouldn't be good for either of them to be involved again. But then what if she was going to die like before? He'd noticed finally the significance of the dates she died, always on the same date, always a month before her eighteenth birthday. So for this Bella that would give her five months. So shouldn't he cherish it? Relish in the time he got to spend with her, of that his whole self was in accordance.

So the next day he met her by her truck. She seemed shocked at first but quickly got over it. They swapped pleasantries and separated for their first lessons. When he saw her in the halls he couldn't help but smile at her, or talk to her, no matter who she was with. He simply gravitated towards her. In biology he was courteous and funny. They laughed together, which made him feel better than he had in a long time, it had been a while since he'd laughed so freely.

Then he did the same thing the next day, and the next, until it became routine, and Bella would meet _him_ by his car. And she would greet him in the corridors. He realised that she wasn't simply letting the fact that they knew each other go, but he was happy she wasn't mentioning anything for the moment, and he hoped things would continue that way.

He enjoyed watching her, and rejoiced when she did something he expected. Like tripping over thin air, and talking with her hands. She was just as energetic as she'd always been, and even more curious and independent.

Bella too had loved getting to know Edward again. All the little nuances and habits that were so intrinsically him. How he would pinch the bridge of his nose when frustrated, or run his hand through his hair when worried or nervous, and his smile. How could she ever forget his smile. It was simply breathtaking.

She'd also become reacquainted with his family, mainly Alice, who would often say the strangest things to her, often to the annoyance of Edward. Like the day Bella turned up at school wearing a canary yellow top over her jeans, Alice had commented saying. "Oh Bella you look lovely. You always did suit bright colours," as though she'd known Bella previously. Which if Bella took her dreams to be real, she had. Everything was so jumbled up though, and so twisted in her mind she didn't know _what_ was real anymore.

However she didn't just spend all her time with the Cullens, she also got to know some of the girls from her classes. Jessica simply never let go once she'd become attached it seemed, Bella was the shiny new toy that everyone wanted a piece of, so Jess saw it as a chance to boost her popularity, Bella could see right through her false smiles. However there was one girl that seemed lovely, Angela Weber was in her English and Spanish classes and was a God send. Like Bella she didn't need silence to be filled with inane chatter, and she never pried like Jessica. She was simply kind, and just the sort of person Bella needed to balance out the crazy in her life.

She also spent more time with Jacob down at the beach on the reservation. He showed her rock pools and where some of the older boys would jump off the cliffs into the stormy water below, Bella thought they were crazy to even contemplate doing it. She found she enjoyed being around Jacob, he was warm and incredibly friendly, he didn't make her confused. The only problem she found was that she knew he liked her as more than just a friend, and she knew she could never feel that way for him. How could she when she was in love with someone else.

It was after being in Forks a month, and spending most afternoons with Edward that she realised she loved him. She was shocked she could feel so strongly for someone after knowing them for such a short while, though she supposed she shouldn't be. She had loved him in all her memories, she was going to marry him in the beginning, so why shouldn't it be easy to fall back in love with someone?

He was still keeping something from her though, that much she knew. He knew her, he didn't need to tell her that. This was something else, something more shocking, and she had a feeling it would explain the change in her memories. At the beginning of June she was sick of the silence, of the one way conversations and this secret that she knew would tear them apart.

So she made a list. On it she wrote everything about him that she knew had changed. His eye colour; from green to gold. His skin temperature; he was incredibly cold all the time. His face structure; it had become sharper somehow. His overall appearance; he was somehow more beautiful. And he didn't eat. After she made her list she wracked her brain to think of some reason for all these changes, and why he could still look the same after all this time, but it was late and she was tired so she couldn't think. She decided that the next day she would show Edward her list, to show him that she knew something was different, because she was sick of the lies. And as she went to sleep she hoped he would finally tell her the truth.

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_Let me know what you think please._

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	4. The Beginning of the End

**So it's Monday, that means a new chapter :)**

**Did any of you see the teaser on the Twi Muses, Tease me, Please me Friday?**

**So this is a shorter chapter than before, but a lot goes on :)**

**I had some lovely reviews for my last chapter, though not as many as I got for the previous two, which is sad :( but loved none the less :)**

**I really hope you enjoy this chapter **

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A Love Story For the Ages

A Twilight Fanfiction

by missrebecca

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It had been two months since Edward had been reconnected with his lost love. Two months of lying to her, of his heart breaking over it and knowing that he could never truly be honest with her. He'd found he couldn't even lie to her properly, choosing instead to deflect any personal questions sent his way back to her, so really he wasn't lying. He simply wasn't saying anything.

She was a clever girl though, and he knew that eventually she would figure it out. She had been spending a lot of time down on the Quileute reservation, so he knew it would only be a matter of time till she worked out what he was, and then she would be disgusted with him he was sure, and want nothing more to do with him. That thought alone nearly broke him down.

Edward was determined that she never know what he was, what a horrid creature he could be. He was terrified of what her reaction would be, and he was enjoying the time spent with her too much to throw it all away.

He could never regret his decision to get to know her and not simply ignore the girl that was such an important part of his life. This time he was determined that she wouldn't die. He simply couldn't let her, he wasn't sure if his heart could deal with the loss. She was truly amazing though, and it had been even easier to fall back in love with her. The pain he felt when she was gone was almost a distant memory now that he had her back, and was set on never letting her go again.

On the third of June he waited by his car for the arrival of Bella, just as he did every morning. She was running a little late so all the spaces near his car were taken, meaning she would have to park at the opposite end of the lot, of course it would give him more time to observe her, a hobby he would never tire of. He was looking forward to spending the summer vacation with her. Although even in Forks they got some sunny days, though his family had already devised a plan to avoid them (he hoped Bella wouldn't want to come camping with them), but it wasn't something he minded, so long as he got to spend time with her.

After a few minutes he watched as her truck rumbled into the lot, though he'd heard it from more than a mile away. The tyres kicked up the spray from last nights rain, and he hoped she didn't begin to aquaplane, though he supposed with those tyres there was no chance of it happening. Edward continued observing her as she collected her bag and hopped out of the cab. She seemed nervous he noticed, fidgeting with the strap of her backpack and mumbling to herself, but he couldn't hear what she said.

Finally she glanced up and sent him a nervous look, but no smile like she usually did. His metaphorical heart was in his throat; could she know? Was she going to tell him to stay away from her? Before he could truly lose himself to his thoughts however, his attention was dragged away from Bella walking nervously towards him, to the car that had just entered the lot. The boys music was blaring and he seemed to be fiddling with his phone, his attention therefore was not on the road, and he was heading straight for Bella.

Edward prayed he would notice her and slow down or stop, so he didn't have to risk exposure by speeding to her rescue. Of course that didn't happen instead he just kept on coming, until he went too quick over a band of water and began to skid. The movement of the car was only slight, however it was enough to knock the driver, Tyler, out of his distraction who then swerved to correct it, but only managed to send him directly on path to hit Bella. So Edward did the only thing he could do; he ran.

He moved so quickly no one saw him, distracted as they were by Tyler and his car swerving out of control. Then he was on her, knocking her back a few feet so she was no longer in the way, allowing Tyler to make a complete albeit shaky stop. To the observers it looked just like Bella had stepped back slightly. The whole event took maybe thirty seconds to occur, but to Edward having to watch the car head for Bella, it seemed like a lifetime till she was safe.

"Ed-Edward, how…?" She trailed off, frowning while looking at the car and where she had been standing just a moment before. But she couldn't understand how Edward had got to her so quickly.

"It's okay, you're safe now." He cooed, wrapping his arms around her, partly to shield her and to hopefully stop her asking more questions, but mostly for himself, so he could feel for himself that she was there and real and alive.

"B-but, you were over there. And now you're here. How is that even possible?" Bella was so confused. She couldn't understand how he could move so fast, though she supposed she had one more thing to add to her list.

"You must have been distracted, I was nearly to you when Tyler started skidding. Are you sure you're okay?" he asked, once again ashamed with himself for lying to her.

"No Edward," Bella retorted, "I saw you. You were on the other side of the lot, you couldn't have…" she was frowning, she was so confused. How could he have done that?

The bell signalling the start of classes interrupted her line of questioning, which Edward was thankful for, and he walked her to her first class in silence. She didn't even reply when he told her he'd see her later.

But Bella hadn't heard him. Neither did she hear anything in her classes the whole day, she didn't eat at lunch and barely smiled in greeting to Edward. Her mind was totally absorbed with thinking about what had happened. About Edwards apparent speed. Bella didn't think he had always been that fast, neither that he had been standing near her. So that would mean it was something else that had changed, more than likely when his eye colour changed too. She felt she was missing something huge, something obvious.

She barely spoke to Charlie at dinner, not that that was so unusual, but he did notice his daughters lack of presence in the room. She was eating robotically, as though she didn't taste the lasagne she'd made them. However he simply chose to let her go about her business, what did he know about teenage girls anyway?

She went to bed straight after doing her homework, though sleep didn't come straight away. Everything was still running through her mind, like it was on a constant loop. She needed something to distract her, to get her off this conundrum, then maybe she would figure it out. She grabbed her iPod from her bag and played the first thing she could find, trying desperately to become absorbed by the music and not think about things that made no sense.

Finally she slept, though it wasn't restful. She dreamt of incredibly fast, cold beings, spiralling around her in the dark forest. The trees were so tall above her she could barely see the tops, and the earth was damp, like it had just rained. This wasn't a memory, for once she was dreaming for herself.

Somewhere in the back of the dream state she heard a wolf howl, but ignored it before she became focused on the white blur rocketing towards her. Bella cringed expecting the blur to plough straight into her, but it didn't, and after a moment she straightened up to see Edward standing in front of her. One hand outstretched for her to go to. He was smiling, just how she liked, his whole facing lighting up in happiness. How could she not take his hand? But as soon as she reached for it he vanished, as though blown away with the wind. Then she was on a beach, and this she knew was a memory, but a more recent one.

It was her last trip to the beach with Jacob, and after a peculiar conversation with her father about the Cullens she'd decided to ask Jacob about it. Charlie had said that the Quileute's didn't like the Cullens, but he didn't know why. Bella figured if anyone would know it would be Jacob, and she needed all the info she could get on them.

He'd wove her a tale of men who turned into wolves, so she immediately disregarded it as folklore, but now, in her dream, it didn't seem so silly. Jacob had called the Cullens cold ones, which in her mind made sense; they _were_ incredibly cold. But neither of them had believed it, they'd laughed at how superstitious old men could be and left it at that, she never asked what cold ones were specifically. And as she awoke from her dream, she realised that maybe she should find out.

~O~

As Bella awoke, breathless, from her dream, Alice slipped into a vision. She had been laying with Jasper in the garden, soaking up the early morning sun before it hid for the day behind thick clouds. Their hands had been intertwined and he'd been singing softly to her. Alice had never felt so relaxed.

When the vision started she didn't tense or show any real sign that it was happening. She'd grown used to getting these flashes and rarely reacted to them anymore. As the colours swirled before her, forming the shapes of Bella and Edward she held her unneeded breath, smiling as she pictured what it could be of. Maybe they'd finally kiss, or he'd tell her the truth and they could be together forever. However as the figures solidified the idea of a happy ending quickly flew from her mind.

Her hand in Jaspers clenched shut as she watched Edward scream, and pull at his hair. He was going crazy, shouting about unfairness and how this wasn't supposed to happen this way. Her sight, so focused on Edward, didn't notice at first the girl writhing on the floor. It was worse than in New York, which was peaceful compared to the scene in front of her now. Bella lay writhing on the floor, unable to scream from the blood pouring from her mouth. She was trying to say something, and she was reaching for Edward. But he was lost, watching his love die, he was no use to her. The vision continued and Alice didn't want to see anymore, but she couldn't stop it happening, she never could stop a vision once it started. So she watched, as her best friend convulsed and drowned in her own blood, before her eyes rolled back into her head and she stopped.

Alice watched helpless as Edward knelt by his Bella, shaking her and begging her to wake up. But she wasn't going to. She was gone.

Her vision cleared on a gasp, and she saw she'd been moved into the living room, Jaspers hand was still clutched in her own. She could barely believe what she'd seen, how could this have happened? And why was it happening now?

"Alice, Alice," Jasper was speaking to her, she turned her blank eyes to his, not really seeing him. All she could see was the blood, "What did you see? You have to tell us what you saw sweetheart."

"I…can't…no," Her breath was coming in short gasps as she looked around the room and found Edward, almost curled into himself on the chair next to her, "Edward…I-"

"Why?" he asked, lifting his pain filled eyes to hers.

"I don't know."

"When?"

"Graduation." His eyes went wide as she spoke, and her own closed in pain.

"But, that's only a week away." His tone was pleading, begging her to tell him it was all a lie. But she couldn't.

"I'm so sorry Edward."

"I thought we had till August," he muttered, and Alice shot a shocked glance his way. The rest of the family were trying to understand what had happened, but knew better than to interrupt them.

"You know?"

"Know what Alice?"

"The date, always the same date."

"Yes, but not this time," as he spoke he dropped his head back into his hands, but she wasn't about to let him worry, he needed to know the significance.

"Edward, come with me. Now," she added when it looked like he wouldn't move, "You need to see this."

Reluctantly he followed his pint sized sister up the stairs to her room, the rest of the family followed silently, they hated seeing Edward and Alice in so much pain. Alice ignored them however and walked straight to her large walk in wardrobe at the back of the room, where she grabbed a large box from the top shelf and walked back to where the family had gathered in the centre.

"Edward, when we moved here I did a little digging and found something. In here are photocopies of newspaper articles about Bella's deaths-"

"Why do you have this Alice?" he asked, confused as to why she felt the need to look into it.

"She's been dying over and over, always on the same day, always a month before her birthday. So I wanted to know why, and how we could stop it next time. She always died on August eighteenth, well mostly," she added, referring to New York and watched as Edward winced, lost in the memories, "Does that date ring any bells Edward?" Though she asked she doubted her would remember the significance.

Edward had no idea what Alice was getting at, all he could think about was that was the day Bella always died. But he couldn't seem to think of anything else, his mind was filled with the vision Alice had, all that blood pouring out of her. He didn't think he'd ever wash the image from his mind. Carlisles voice just broke him from his thoughts.

"That was the first day of Edwards change," he said, frowning as he tried to catch up to Alices train of thought.

"Exactly. And on that day, Isabella Swan was found in an alley two streets away from the hospital Edward had been treated in. She'd been looking for you, while she burned," she spoke directly to Edward now, hoping he would understand, "As you burned, so did she, and she died without ever getting to see you one last time. In New York she said she'd finally found you, but by then she was already dying, there was nothing we could do. What if she's been looking for you all this time? Being reborn only to die again when she doesn't find you-"

"This is all a little science fiction Alice, don't you think?" Rosalie asked, her face a mask on disbelief.

"Rose, we're vampires. I don't think anything's impossible anymore."

"It does make sense, but why would you see her dying in a week?" Edward asked, his voice breaking over the word. He didn't want to imagine her leaving him again.

"Something must have changed. But I can't let it happen, Edward. I won't let you live without her again," Of this one thing Alice was sure, she would not allow Edward to be without his Bella, she would do whatever it takes.

"And how do you suppose we stop the bloodbath we witnessed?"

"We could change her," Jasper spoke, continuing through Edwards disapproving growl, "It would make sense, you want to keep her forever, and this way she'll never die."

"He has a point Ed-"

"No Alice, he doesn't. I will not allow her soul to be taken, I can't."

"So you'd rather she die like we saw, in that much pain and bathed in that much blood?" Although it hurt to think about, she needed him to see reason. This was the only way.

"I can't, Alice." Edward was pleading with his sister to understand, he simply couldn't damn Bella, such a beautiful creature to a non-life such as theirs, it would be incredibly cruel and selfish of him.

"You have to. I'm sorry it has to be this way," Alice placed a soft hand on his shoulder as she stood, realising he needed to be alone and the rest of them should get to school, "We should go, but if you need me let me know okay?" The hand on his shoulder squeezed though he didn't feel it surrounded as he was by the notices of Bellas death. He couldn't let her die, but he couldn't make her like him either. He just couldn't.

~O~

Bella wasn't sure what she was expecting. Simply searching for the term 'cold one' on the internet wasn't exactly going to give reliable results, but she supposed she had to start somewhere right? She got a few hits for some band in England, and some crazy blogs, before she finally hit on something that seemed a little more connected. The page described some Native American legends, stories of the Thunderbird and the K'wati. There it mentioned a cautionary tale told to children, about the Apotamkin, which were also known as the cold ones.

Bella read how the stories were designed to discourage children from wandering into the woods on their own, for fear of a cold, dead man eating them. It described how the fictitious Apotamkin was extremely strong and fast, and would drink the blood of any animal or human it came across.

_Like vampires?_

But it wasn't real, it was simply a cautionary tale, but if that were true why then did Jacob call the Cullens, cold ones. Obviously they didn't drink the blood of just anyone they came across, and Bella found it hard to believe they did that at all. Vampires weren't real, Dracula was a fictional story, as were all the tales by Anne Rice. She could believe she had known Edward in another life, but she simply couldn't marry the image she had of a vampire with the image of her Edward; it simply couldn't be true.

However on the drive to school, her mind began to think the idea through. They were definitely different, after all Edward was incredibly fast and cold, and of course made her irate and short tempered. She blatantly ignored Alices greeting in the parking lot, so absorbed as she was in her thoughts. She barely took notice of the fact that Edward wasn't with the Cullens and that instead they'd arrived in a large jeep driven by Emmet…well she almost didn't notice. It seemed even when barely cognizant she still took notice of his presence.

She ignored Jessicas questions about what Bella would be doing after graduation, and didn't bother to play up to Mike at lunch. Her mind was so consumed by thoughts of Edward. Images of him draining the blood of the people in the town. Could the man she loved really be capable of such atrocity? And if so would it really change anything? She had to say she didn't think it would. After all it was only part of his nature, just like her affinity for beef or pork. But really she would just accept him no matter what.

Edward finally made an appearance in biology, slipping into the seat next to her silently with barely a smile her way. She thought he looked worried, his brows drawn together slightly as though in concentration. Maybe she should just ask him about it?

The bell signalling the end of the lesson rang, and neither Edward nor Bella had spoken a word to the other. Each of them wrapped in their own troubles, neither knowing that if they only spoke to each other, maybe everything would just be okay. They were each avoiding the proverbial elephant in the room that was their past together. Though both were sure the other knew about it, neither knew for sure. And until one of them could be brave and break the silence, the cycle would simply continue.

~O~

The dreams started as she slept that night. Dreams filled with blood dripping from pale lips. Sharp teeth biting through thin flesh like a hot knife through butter. Dreams that left her shaking in a cold sweat of horror. They left her gasping for breath as she woke repeatedly, trying desperately to escape the horror of her thoughts. She knew what they were showing her, Edward as a vampire, taking life. Then thankfully they changed and she was back in New York.

She was in a field listening to Hendrix. _I'm at Woodstock_. She realised, and felt amazement surge as she realised she had attended the festival that people still talked about. Then the images ended and she was left dreaming with her thoughts.

Thoughts of her consequent deaths, of the pain and the burning and the itching. Of the fear of something, God what was she so scared of if not the pain?

Then things started clicking into place. Inconsequential facts that had never seemed important before then. Like the dates she died. She'd died on the same day the first few times, always a month before her birthday. But in New York it was a little earlier wasn't it? What was different about New York?

_I knew him_. The thought hit her quickly before it left. She recognised him, she remembered that now. She remembered asking him who he was, and if they'd met before. And each time he'd lied. Was that it then? She died earlier because she knew him, could it be that simple?

And then as the fog of sleep cleared the most disturbing thing occurred to her. Something so obvious it should have occurred to her earlier. She was going to die, much sooner than she'd like to.

She wasn't going to get the predicted sixty more years of life. She wasn't going to get married and have children and have a career. Sometime in the near future, more than likely before her next birthday she was going to die, and it wasn't going to be quick or easy. It was going to be painful and heart breaking.

The tears poured hot down her cheeks. She would be leaving everyone behind. She would never see Charlie again, or Renee, or Edward. Because so what if she were reincarnated again, she wouldn't be who she is now. She would be some new Bella, who would only die again.

She skipped school that day and spent it curled in bed thinking of her inevitable death. She thought of ways to stop it; if there even was a way. She went through stages of panic and terror and grief. But she couldn't deny it. She felt in her heart that this was true. So what could she do?

Charlie came to check on her after he got in from work and she surprised them both by crawling into his lap as he sat on her bed. Simply holding him, crying persistently into his shirt. He wasn't sure what to do, having never really dealt with an emotional teenage girl, so he held her back, cooing softly into her ear and promising that everything would be okay.

Eventually she let him go and crawled back into bed. Deciding it would be best if she at least tried to sleep. Missing school wasn't going to stop her from dying, it would simply mean she wouldn't graduate before she died. So she fell into a fitful sleep. Her dreams filled once again of menacing gold eyes and blood dripping from pale lips, but this time the blood wasn't just from some stranger, it was from her. Her neck that Edward bit into so easily, her blood he drained from her, her pale lifeless body dumped at his feet.

Then she saw something else. Something that gave her hope that maybe she could be saved, that maybe she didn't have to die. She saw herself; tall, pale and beautiful with deep golden eyes.

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_Let me know what you think please :)_

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	5. The End

**So this is it. The last chapter of my novella. Your reviews have been wonderful and the support for this story supremely epic. JB30 (I think that's right off the top of my head xD), you've been amazing, posting my story over on ADF and your reviews have always put the biggest of smiles on my face.**

**I sincerely hope you enjoy the end of this story that has been my favourite piece of my writing :)**

**Thank you.**

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A Love Story For The Ages

A Twilight Fanfiction

by missrebecca

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Graduation was creeping ever closer and Edward was no closer to deciding what to do. He'd always hated how time moved faster when you're dreading something happening. Like a test, or say the love of your life suffering a horrible demise.

Alice was constantly scanning the future, to the point where she had constant headaches that not even Jasper could ease. But she didn't stop searching, she was determined to find some alternative. Something had to give. She would not allow Bella to be harmed and to leave them again. But not even her own decision to change Bella if it came to it could change the course of her visions. All she saw were rivers of red and her brother falling to pieces by the side of his dead love. She was sure that if it came to pass this would be the end of Edward, that he would simply cease to exist.

Bella on the other hand had no idea she was set to die in barely a weeks time. During the week leading up to graduation she had been trying, in vain, to put all thought of vampires and her inevitable death from her mind. She'd barely spoken to Edward, through no fault of their own however, due to the ever present sun during the week and the Cullens affinity for 'camping trips'. The fact that they were only absent from school when the sun came out didn't help to alleviate her speculation that they were vampires.

She had been spending her week accessing her college fund and setting up her scholarship. She'd managed to get into Columbia to study architecture and she was trying to iron out all the details before summer, so she could enjoy her last summer at home.

The whole process had been both exciting and heart breaking. She'd applied before she'd worked out that she would die, and then when she was accepted into the program she was ecstatic. But now it was all a little bittersweet. She put on the façade for Charlies sake, filling out forms and working out where she would live, even though she knew she would never make it. She would be long dead before she could move into the fifth floor apartment she'd found.

She'd been working up the courage all week to ask him whether he was a vampire or not, and for him to finally tell her the truth, and then maybe she could convince him to make her like him. She'd worked through her strange dreams and come to the conclusion that it was what she wanted. She loved him, and if he could live forever why couldn't she by his side? She also wanted to tell him she loved him, and to get just one kiss, just to see if his lips were as soft as she'd always imagined they would be.

The graduation ceremony passed without a hitch. Each student walked up to the podium to collect their diploma, smiling and occasionally waving to friends and family in the audience. As Bella collected hers she got a full on cheer from her dad and Billy Black, and with blushing cheeks she tripped down the steps to join the other students. She didn't throw her cap as some of the students did, too afraid to lose it.

She had just said goodbye to her Dad, as he was called to the station, when Alice came over to see her. Bella didn't think she looked entirely happy, and the smile plastered on her small friends face was anything but sincere.

"So, we're graduated…how grown up do you feel?" She asked, wrapping Bella in a tight hug.

"Not very, but thankfully I'm set for college in the fall. Where are you going Alice? We'll have to keep in touch." Bellas smile felt just as forced as Alices looked, both of them thinking about how Bella wouldn't get to go to college in the fall, and they wouldn't be keeping in touch.

"Yeah, 'course. Anyway, I think Edward was looking for you."

"Oh, well will you tell him to meet me by my truck?" Alice nodded and gave Bella another tight hug, whispering, "I promise to keep in touch" before relinquishing the contact and walking away. Alice felt horrible for saying that to Bella, because honestly she still wasn't sure whether Bella would be alive by the end of the day.

Alices head hung low as she made her way back to her brother and husband. It was killing her that this was happening. That she was losing what felt like a sister. She wished there was a way to convince Edward to do what was right and change her, before it was too late to save her. She was within an arms length of Jasper when the vision hit, the vision that made her stumble and almost fall to the ground. An act that should be near impossible for a forever graceful vampire.

She saw Bella and Edward surrounded by trees like in her other vision, but this time she wasn't dying, she was speaking. Talking about how she knew what was going on, that she knew what Edward was and she wanted him to make her like him. Of course Edward denied her, refusing to damn his love like that. But Bella fought back, getting into his face and shrugging out of her cardigan as she went, itching her already red arms and pulling at her hair as she screamed at him. She was begging him to understand, to make him understand that she was dying. _She was dying._

"Alice what is it?" Jasper asked as she broke out of her haze. But like before she was silent, looking into Edwards fearful eyes.

"Did you see?"

He nodded, too shocked to open his mouth to speak. She knew, how could she know?

"This is it Edward. This is the make or break moment." Alice whispered, walking up to her brother and placing a hand on his cold arm, "It's not just your decision to make anymore." She sighed and leaned up to place a kiss on his cheek, "She's waiting for you."

Alices fear had worried Bella. Did she know something? After everything she had managed to work out for herself, and if the Cullens really were vampires, she didn't like to think of a reason why someone like Alice would be afraid.

Instead she hopped into her truck after throwing the mustard coloured gown into the back and waited for Edward to arrive. She wasn't sure where they would go or what exactly she would say to him, but she knew she had to try something. Everything was just so up in the air, she needed something concrete, something definite. She couldn't keep thinking what if. What if she died in August? What if Edward was a vampire? What if he wouldn't change her? And her biggest worry, what if this just happens again?

The sun looked like it was trying to make a break for it through the clouds, before they covered it's rays up again. No more sun today, thought Bella. Her fingers tapped out a rhythm on the steering wheel, as she pursed her lips in boredom. Edward was taking his sweet time getting here.

She was incredibly nervous and her heart was still pounding a quick beat through her ears, as Edward broke through the swarm of yellow gowned students. He, like his sister, had a fake smile on his face. His eyes were just dull. Bella frowned but chose to ignore it, maybe he was just sad to be leaving for college. _If vampires even go to college?_

"Alice said you wanted to talk to me?" He asked. She was trying to catch his eyes, but he was looking somewhere in her forehead, refusing to meet her gaze. It was…strange.

"Yeah, but not here 'kay?" She started the truck without waiting for an answer and drove out of the lot, avoiding ambling students as she went. Bella had no clue where they were going, but she knew they had to go somewhere quiet, someplace where people couldn't over hear the incredibly crazy conversation they were about to have.

Edwards mind was racing. All of Alices visions and the things she'd managed to work out running through his head. This _was_ it. This was his last chance. If he didn't take it, he would lose her again, only for her to be reincarnated and for them to meet again in another eighteen years. But no matter how hard he tried he couldn't think through it logically.

Logically he knew it would be the right thing to do to change her. That way neither of them would have to live through her death again and they could be together forever, _if Bella even loves me_ he thought pessimistically. But the irrational, and winning, part of his mind believed that this was right, this was her destiny. To live multiple human lives and come back to him. In that part of his mind he saw that as the right thing to do, that multiple short lives were better than an unending half life, lived in the dark and feeding off the essence of others.

He was at war with himself. Trying desperately to think of what would be best for Bella, but coming back to what he _wanted_. He was being selfish. He couldn't take her life, not just so he wouldn't have to live through the heart ache of watching her die again. Surely it wouldn't affect Bella…or would it?

It was something he hadn't considered. If she remembered him, and of course he still had no idea how deep her memory ran, did she remember the pain? Did she remember screaming in agony in the field in New York? Did she remember running blindly down dirty alleys in Chicago? Or screaming in her bed in London? If so, and she died again, would she remember it then? Could he be the person that forces her to relive that? He wasn't so sure, and he was running out of time to decide.

Bella had been silent the whole drive. She'd been thinking over what she was going to say to him. What was the most important? Maybe she should start with the whole 'I love you' business and move on to the vampire stuff afterwards. Surely if he knew she loved him he would be more inclined to keep her, to stop her from dying. But maybe that would be seen as manipulation, maybe she should ask him about being a vampire first, but then what if she didn't get chance to tell him she loved him?

Maybe she should just tell him she knows. She _knows_ he is a vampire, there's no question about it. No matter how crazy the idea could be, she was sure that it was right. Then the only real question is if he would make her like him. All the details could be ironed out somewhere between now and August, so long as she didn't have to live through the agony she'd felt in her dreams again, Bella was more scared of the pain than of dying again.

She felt a tingling in her arm as she turned off the main road through the town and onto a smaller track. Then the tingle turned to an itch that almost burned. She didn't realise she was already scratching it until she turned to look at her arm. She frowned at the deep red lines carved into her skin, they sparked something else, another memory of a cold night. Running through empty streets with blood dripping from her finger tips, seeping from the deep gauges caused by her nails and other sharp implements digging into the skin, in a desperate attempt to remove the unfathomably painful itch.

But this was worse than that phantom memory. This felt like hot knives were being poked from the inside of her arm outwards. She knew what this was. This was the beginning of the end. But why was it happening so soon?

Was it because she'd worked it out? Because she now knew her destiny and was seizing it with two hands? Was that it? Was fate so cruel? She pulled quickly over to the side of the road and squeezed her eyes shut, the pain was spreading. Moving from the arm to her shoulder, across her chest and seeping into her other arm. _It wasn't this quick last time_.

"Are you okay?" Edward asked her, watching as she jumped slightly as she scratched her arms.

Bella didn't answer as she hopped out of the cab, pacing in front of the bulbous hood while she waited for Edward to meet her. This was it. Her last chance - literally. It was such a rare moment of clarity, she didn't quite know how to grasp it. As she realised that this was it, by figuring it all out her body was giving in - giving in to her destiny. By reconciling her true memories with her mysterious dreams she had somehow sealed her fate.

"No, I'm not." She began, answering his question. Should she just come out and say it? Could it be that simple. "I'm dying."

It was like he'd been punched in the chest. As though a herd of elephants had crawled in there to reside where his heart used to beat. She was dying, and she knew it. So this was it, no more time to prepare, just time to decide.

"I can't think straight." she murmured, pulling at her hair in a desperate attempt to remove the pressure building there. This was so much worse than New York.

"Bella-" he began, moving towards her in an attempt to calm her, to do anything to help relieve the pain she was in.

"No!" she shouted. Putting a hand in the air between them to halt his approach, she just needed some space. "I just-God. I know, okay? I know what you are. God this _hurts_!" She was gasping and mumbling, but Edward heard every word.

"What?"

"You're a vampire. I know it. You've been alive since 1901 and in 1918 you _died_ of the Spanish flu. But you didn't. I died and somehow you got to stay just the way you are, for forever." The pain had radiated throughout her body and as she fell to the ground she felt hot tears on her cheeks, but as she pulled her fingers away from her face she saw they were stained red. She was crying blood.

"See this!" She screamed, her voice hoarse, as she thrust her blood stained hand up to his face, "My blood. I'm dying and you stand there and do nothing. I love you. God Edward, make this go away!"

Her hands were back in her hair, pulling strands and clumps out without any notice of what she was doing, and Edward was frozen. Completely and utterly gob smacked by the words coming from her mouth. He was in agony. His heart was being shredded to pieces watching her come apart in front of his eyes and knowing there was nothing he could do. Not one thing.

"I've lived like this so many times and I can't do it again. I won't Edward, my heart can't take it." It was an odd sensation she felt, like all her past selves were converging, melding together inside her. All the memories she had, all the moments she had with Edward running together. All the heart ache she'd felt her whole life but never knowing a reason for it. All the days she awoke crying silently but having no recollection of why. She was done, and Bella felt her heart breaking because she knew if she died today, she would never see Edward again. This was her last chance, no more Bellas.

"Please Edward." She begged, mumbling the words over and over as rocked into the earth, the blood dripping down her nose and chin onto the dark ground.

"I can't-" he began, collapsing into tearless sobs as he watched his love. How could he condemn her?

"This is it you know?"

"I'll see you again." Edward was quiet as he moved to kneel before her, holding onto the knowledge that he _would_ see her again.

"No you won't. I said we're done. Too much _pain_, too much." Her eyes were crazed as they met his own jet black irises, "This is it. I won't see you after today, I promise."

Bella felt the life working it's way out of her and she found herself hoping for the end. Edward was before her and yet he wouldn't save her, all she had left to hope for was the peacefulness death would bring.

"Do you love me?" she asked, as she lay herself down on the ground, wincing at the pain slicing through her limbs.

"More than anything." He murmured, grasping onto her outstretched hand as though it held all answers to life. He couldn't just let her die. But what could he do, he'd promised himself he wouldn't make her like him, that he wouldn't condemn her to this half life.

"I know what you are, my love." She whispered, coughing blood after she spoke, "Can't I be what you are, and be by your side for forever?"

At her words Edward broke down. His cries echoing off the surrounding trees who were audience to his grief. His mind was shouting at him, telling him she had no idea what she was asking for. But his heart, the heart that had long ago stopped beating, was telling him to do it. To break her skin and pour his venom into her, to save her and to change her. To be selfish.

"I don't- I don't think I can." he sobbed, kissing her hand softly and gripping it for grim death. Quietly hoping if he held on tight enough she would stay with him.

"Not much time now." Her voice was barely a breath through her teeth, her body too weak to force more unnecessary air into breathing. She barely felt the pain anymore, her mind trying desperately to block everything that wasn't Edward from her. "Please Edward. Save me." Then her eyes slid shut and her breathing became laboured.

Edward heard her heart speed up frantically and knew he only had seconds before not even venom would save her. So this was it, no more time to think things over, only time left for action.

He swept her sweat matted hair from her forehead and face, smoothing away the blood from her lips before he placed a soft kiss upon them, relishing in the softness but wincing at the lack of heat. She was nearly gone. It was now or never.

"Forgive me," he whispered into the skin by her ear.

And with the last breath of his words he bit, letting her blood rush into his open mouth, almost losing himself in the sweet taste of her before pushing it and his venom back into the wound, sealing it as he went. He did the same to the other side of her neck plus her wrists, before pulling his Bella into his lap and tearlessly weeping. God, he hoped it was the right decision.

The End

* * *

_I never intended to continue this. The idea of Bellas change and her continued life as a vampire has been done so many times I didn't want to detract from my plot. So this is it. It allows for the reader to have some creative license don't you think?_

_So this is it. It's complete, as is my other Twilight story, The Curious Case of Isabella Swan (though that will have a sequel), and I am now moving on to begin my original fiction novel during NaNoWriMo._

_If any of you will be taking part in this years NaNoWriMo feel free to add me as a buddy, missrebecca, and get me on twitter missrebecca_12. Drop me a line if you are doing this and as ever let me know what you think of this :)_

_thanks very much._


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